Empowering Models of Diffusion of Innovation through Social Networks and their Agents

Abstract

Nowadays, our world is offering a huge amount of data and tools to gather useful information for various marketing purposes. The aim is to give a new and contemporary dimension to the theory and models of diffusion of innovation of the twentieth century, by exploiting the potential given by the possible analysis of the interconnections between the agents within social networks. Interactions and influences between consumers have a strong impact on the decisional process; consequently, the patterns and dynamics of social networks should be deeply understood. Agents are classified according to specific criteria: responses to innovation, position within the network, potential influences on other agents, extension and density of the network. An overview of the available theoretical tools will be put in place to identify the paths undertaken to achieve the goal of this script and perform additional forecasts to products’ life cycle, sales trends, and speed of diffusion of innovation. The company “Northwave”, based in the region of Veneto in Italy, is discovered and analyzed to give a concrete example of the application and exploitation of the models with the addition of social networks’ dynamics. Analytical instruments and methods are the cornerstone to reach the scope, in addition to academic books and more recent articles.